Mother, daughter face arson charges

Daniel Tepfer

Updated 12:36 am, Friday, May 17, 2013

STRATFORD -- A mother and daughter were charged Thursday with conspiring to torch the mother's home here two years ago.

Police said Luz Davila-Nieves, 60, and her daughter, 41-year-old Madeline Griffin, planned the crime, including providing themselves with alibis. But police said they got suspicious when they found all the food from the mother's refrigerator stashed in the daughter's car.

The two women were each charged with first-degree arson, conspiracy to commit first-degree arson, first-degree larceny and insurance fraud. Each is being held on $250,000 bond.

On May 28, the home at 555 Light St. was heavily damaged by a fire. Police said an investigation determined that gasoline was poured throughout the house and ignited. According to police, inside the garage there, firefighters found the daughter's car loaded with frozen food, two television sets, a digital camera, jewelry and four cellphones.

Both Davila-Nieves and her daughter claimed they had been at the daughter's home in Brookfield and didn't learn about the fire until the next day, police said. Davila-Nieves later collected $337,000 in insurance money for the house, while her daughter collected nearly $2,000 for her damaged car.

Police said neighbors told them of seeing a woman who matched Griffin's description outside the house during the fire. Meanwhile, the mother's cellphone records, police said, showed that Davila-Nieves made calls to her daughter while driving from Stratford to Brookfield around the time of the fire.

Police said Griffin is also a suspect in an arson fire in her former duplex apartment on Howard Avenue in Bridgeport in 2009. They said the duplex burst into flames shortly after Griffin's landlord sent her a letter informing her the rent was going up.